Road unravels 48 hrs after being laid

Thursday, Sep 23, 2010



A portion of a newly streetscaped road near Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium, opposite Sai Baba mandir, got damaged barely 48 hours after the stretch was laid and tiled by a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) consultant.

The damage, which led to massive jams, has exposed the quality of work which was unable to sustain traffic load for even a few days.

The affected stretch on Bhishma Pitamah Marg is made of cobbled stones to restrict the speed of vehicles moving over it. ''The stones were put in place barely two days ago and have already started coming off. They were being repaired in the morning and this led to massive traffic jams on the main road,'' said sources. The stones had reportedly not been fixed properly to the raised portion of the road and had started to disintegrate.

MCD, meanwhile, contended that this was only a ''minor'' damage. ''The road has not caved in. Only some stones from the cobbled portion have come off and are in the process of being repaired. It could have been caused due to the rain,'' said an MCD official.

Streetscaping work on the stretch has been mired in controversy ever since the work started with Delhi Traffic police raising objections to construction of dedicated tracks for non-motorised vehicles (NMVs) by taking away almost one lane of road space meant for all other categories of vehicles. The cobbled stretch itself, it was felt, will not serve any purpose and will instead make the ride bumpy for motorists leading to traffic snarls.

About two weeks ago, the slopes for the cobbled stretches were broken and reconstructed as gradient of the old design was not smooth. The cost of carrying out streetscaping work along Bhishma Pitamah Marg is Rs 4 crore and the civic agency claimed that the cost of correcting the slopes was borne by the contractor.

Meanwhile, the constructed crossing is being used for parking by people visiting the Sai Baba temple. Said Radha, a resident of Lodhi Colony, ''The pedestrian crossing is used by people for parking vehicles with the road width having shrunk already due to streetscaping work. Anyone passing through this stretch is bound to be stuck in traffic jams due to this. Now, they have started construction of a similar crossing in front of Sai Baba temple and this will add to the traffic chaos in the area.'' MCD claimed that they had started work in front of the temple only after getting requisite permission from the traffic police.

Original news source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Road-unravels-48-hrs-after-being-laid/articleshow/6609875.cms#ixzz10QVlgQjy